Landscape cohesion and the conservation potential of landscapes for biodiversity: evaluating agri-environment schemes using a spatially explicit agent-based modeling approach

This paper proposes a spatial explicit agent-based model to evaluate the impact of agri-environment schemes on the spatial cohesion of agricultural landscapes in the light of habitat network patterns. Networks of nature reserves are being proposed as a solution when the degree of fragmentation is considered to endanger the long-term persistence of species diversity. Agri-environment schemes are supposed to give a positive contribution to these networks. The model presented in this paper combines the spatial dynamics in land ownership, land use and the importance of agri-environment schemes in conserving biodiversity through capturing the heterogeneity of individual farmers as well as their dynamics in a spatial-explicit landscape. The paper evaluates the effects of two different agri-environment policies on landscape level and proofs that agri-environment schemes with flexible payments based on spatial landscape configuration can be valuable for agri-environment policy development